Formby pensioner saves his brother's life with bone marrow donation

Kevin Dunne from Formby saved sibling Tony’s life after he was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder

A Formby pensioner saved his sibling's life through donating bone marrow to his little brother.

Kevin Dunne, 68, from Formby, saved sibling Tony’s life after he was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder.

Tony, 66, was told his best chance of survival was to have a bone marrow transplant, but many patients never find suitable donors.

Kevin Dunne of Formby will be giving the gift of life by donating his bone marrow to his brother Tony. Tony has a rare blood disorder and Kevin has come up as a 100% match

Doctors tested brother Kevin and found he was a rare 100% match.

Kevin said: “The procedure went very well and there were no complications. The actual procedure all happened in one day.

“Tony is now in the recovery period. He had a massive amount of chemotherapy and it takes time to get over that.”

Retired bar and cafe owner Kevin became the hero of the hour after Tony was diagnosed with aplastic anaemia – an illness that causes the bone marrow to stop producing blood cells.

Tony Dunne, 66, whose life was saved after receiving a bone marrow donation from his older brother Kevin

During the transplant, Kevin was hooked up to a machine for four hours that filtered his blood to harvest 240m stem cells. The procedure is painless but he needed medication afterwards to replenish his bloodstream.

Tony, who lives in Plymouth, was given an intense course of chemotherapy to kill his remaining bone marrow before Kevin’s stem cells were pumped into his bloodstream.

Kevin said: “It feels really great that I have saved my brother’s life. There was no-one else in England on the register who came up as a match.

“If I hadn’t been a match, we would have been looking at a worldwide appeal to find someone.”

He continued: “The doctors at the hospital think it’s around a 95% cure rate because Tony has responded really well and his blood levels have come back quickly.

“They are confident it’s a virtual cure but there’s no guarantee with stem cells. But it seems to have worked for Tony.”

Kevin is now the lead volunteer for blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan in Liverpool.

He said: “Signing up as a donor is so easy to do, I just wish more people would step up.”

He and other volunteers will stage a bucket collection day for Anthony Nolan in the Liverpool One shopping complex on December 19.

Story and photo source: Southport Visiter BY JOSHUA TAYLOR